Ode to Sunil Santha

Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne credits virtuoso Sunil Santha as having created an indigenous Sinhala music genre, to counter the then prevailing culture of largely copying original Hindi tunes, which had a heavy bearing on Sanskrit words.

Our sister paper Silumina, in an article on the maestro, say Ananda Samarakoon was an exception as he composed his own tunes, but that Sunil Santha had the benign influence of the Hela Haula and songs such as Olu Pipeela Vila Lela Denawa, Waren Heen Saray Ridee Walawe, Diya goda sema thena kiri ithiray and Ho gaa rella binde are a classic example of his unique creations. Sunil Santha had composed over 50 such songs.

Popular songs such as ‘Lanka, Lanka Pembara Lanka’ were composed by Arisen Ahubudu and Santha exploited the Sinhala poetry of Hubert Dissanayake, Rapiel Tennekoon and Kumaratunga Munidasa for his songs, relishing on lucid and unadulterated Sinhala with easy consummation. Santha’s success could be termed perfect and his identity remains intact with his songs remaining popular even today.

Sunil Santha is acknowledged as the maestro who pioneered a novel Sinhala music tradition. He excelled in making full use of Western music to compose the Sinhala song. His interest lay in the creation of a popular music tradition among the people.

Songs such as Olu pipeela vela lela denawa, created by him are simple, flawless and remain popular even today.The Western music orchestras of the Forces often play songs such as Lanka Lanka Pembara Lanka.

Sunil Santha was the first to draw inspiration from Western music in creating Sinhala classical song. Strangely the Westernised Sinhala middle class who never listened to a Sinhala song or spoke Sinhala began to sing and play his songs.

The British Governor's daughter, Rams Botha had sung Sunil Santha's, Olu pipeela veila lela denawa which she cherished most and had it recorded.

He, himself, midwifed the birth of a reservoir of fans of the Sinhala song.